Saskatchewan Roughriders punter Adam Korsak is noted for his distance.
He hails from Melbourne, Australia — which is 14,500 kilometres from Regina.
After developing a passion for North American football, he attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. The campus, for the record, is roughly 3,000km removed from the Queen City.
The numbers that are most relevant to the Roughriders can be found on the stats sheet.
On June 2, he punted twice for an eye-popping average of 51.5 yards as the Roughriders concluded their CFL pre-season schedule by defeating the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-16.
Next up: Sunday’s game against the host Edmonton Elks — and Korsak’s regular-season debut in professional football.
“It’s very exciting,” he said. “I’m excited to be here with the boys. I love the players and I love the coaching staff.
“I’m just looking to go out there and do my job and try to help the team.”
Korsak’s affiliation with the Roughriders dates back to May 2, when he was chosen third overall in the CFL’s Global Draft.
He signed with the Roughriders on June 7 after attending NFL rookie mini-camps with the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers.
For most of Coors Light Riders Training Camp, Korsak and Norwegian-born incumbent Kaare Vedvik were vying for the Roughriders’ punting job.
After Vedvik suffered a strained quadriceps muscle last week, Korsak handled all the punting in Winnipeg. The same will apply in Edmonton.
So far, Craig Dickenson likes what he sees from the CFL neophyte.
“Australians come out of the womb kicking the ball,” the Roughriders’ Head Coach quipped, “so he has done it for a long time and he’s good at what he does.”
It helps that his love of three- or four-down football precedes his actual participation in the sport.
“In Australia, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football are on Monday morning and Tuesday morning, so I would stay home from school sometimes and watch that,” said Korsak, 25. “I was always a fan of college sports and just the whole lifestyle.
“So when I was 17, I was playing Australian rules football and cricket and kind of had to make a decision about whether to keep pursuing that professionally or make a change and go to Prokick Australia.”
Prokick Australia, established in 2007, trains athletes from Down Under with the objective of developing them for the NFL and the NCAA ranks.
He was already familiar with many of the nuances of American football, thanks in part to the wildly popular Madden video game.
“It wasn’t intentional to prepare myself,” Korsak noted. “I was just a kid and I just liked playing PlayStation.
“That was an introduction to learning the players and learning some of the rules. It was kind of a byproduct of just wanting to play the game and it kind of helped me out in a weird way.
“I was always a fan of sports in general. That comes from my dad. We’re a sporting family so, every sport, I really liked and paid attention to.
“It just happened that Australian rules football and my skill set were transferrable.”
That was certainly evident after he was recruited by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Three times a team captain at Rutgers, he was twice named the Scarlet Knights’ special teams MVP.
In 2021, he set an NCAA record for the best net punting average (45.3 yards).
Then came the 2022 season, in which his net average (44.1) exceeded the gross (44.0). The reason: Rutgers’ opponents returned punts for minus-11 yards over the course of Korsak’s senior year.
Accordingly, he received the Ray Guy Award as the premier punter in American college football.
“The other 10 guys in the unit were so good,” he said of the coverage teams. “I appreciate everything that they did for me. It really was a team award in the end.”
Korsak also appreciates the opportunity that has materialized in Saskatchewan — and a chance to play Sunday Night Football, CFL style, this coming weekend.
Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. — or around breakfast time in Melbourne.
“It’s kind of better for my family and friends,” Korsak noted. “They don’t have to wake up at 2 o’clock or 4 o’clock in the morning like they did for Big Ten games. This means they can get up at 9 o’clock and watch it, so this is a great thing.
“I’m just trying to sort out the networks and where they can watch. Even all my teammates with Rutgers, they want to watch it as well, so I’m trying to sort out all the networks in all the countries.
“It’s a bit of a task, but it’s all good. We’ll figure it out.”
